Best Homemade Butter Burger Recipe (Culver's Copycat)
A Butter Burger from Culver’s is always a treat, and now you can recreate one at home with this butter burger recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef or 8 quarter pound burger patties (See Notes)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper or to taste
- 1/2 cup salted butter softened (See Notes)
- 8 slices American cheese (See Notes)
- 4 brioche hamburger buns
- 4 slices red onion
- 8 slices cooked bacon
Optional Toppings
- tomato slices
- romaine or green leaf lettuce
- mayonnaise
- ketchup
- mustard
- dill pickle chips
Instructions
- Divide ground beef into 8 sections and form into patties, or use ready-to-cook patties. Sprinkle salt and pepper over hamburger patties.
- Heat a skillet or griddle to medium high heat. If using cast iron, be sure to allow enough time for the skillet to heat completely. Place two generous pats of butter into the pan (they should melt almost immediately) and place two beef patties on top of the butter. You can add extra butter to the pan - we will use the butter and grease in the pan to toast up the buns later.
- Sear hamburger patties, pressing down on them with a spatula to reduce the amount of shrinking that naturally occurs while cooking. When the burgers are browned on one side, flip them over.
- Place a slice of American cheese on each burger to melt while the second side is cooking. Burgers are done when both sides are browned (about 2 minutes on each side.)
- Add additional pats of butter to the pan and continue cooking all of the burgers.
- To toast the buns, melt some additional butter in the pan and place buns in the pan to toast. This takes only a minute.
- To assemble, top each toasted bun with condiments of your choice: mayonnaise, mustard, and/or ketchup. Place pickles, red onion slice, lettuce, and tomato slice on the bottom bun. Stack two cooked burger patties with two slices of bacon between them, and place on the prepared hamburger bun. Add top of toasted bun and serve.
Notes
- American cheese melts easily and is a classic fast food choice for burgers. Use your favorite type of cheese - we love Tillamook medium cheddar, pepper jack, or even blue cheese.
- Culver’s uses a combination of cuts to make a fresh, specialty ground beef. We mimic that flavor by using a fattier ground beef (80% lean). You can use a leaner ground beef if you prefer.
- We add the butter to the pan to give the meat some extra flavor, also, but you can limit the butter to the buns if you prefer.
- Store plain burger patties in an airtight container for 2-3 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.
If you’d prefer to grill your burgers, slather the softened butter on the insides of the buns and then toast them either on the grill or in a skillet. Nutrition shown is for a two patties on a brioche bun with 2 slices each of cheese and bacon.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 burger | Calories: 917cal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 57g | Fat: 58g | Saturated Fat: 31g | Cholesterol: 330mg | Sodium: 1842mg | Sugar: 2g | Fiber: 1g | Calcium: 511mg | Iron: 5mg